ADAPTED TO EXTREMES

We head to BEN LAWERS, Scotland’s 10th highest Munro, on the trail of some of the hardiest plants to be found anywhere in the British mountains.

WORDS SARAH RYAN

Life is remarkably tolerant. Last year, two fungi sourced from the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica and two lichens from mountain ranges in Europe were sent into space. Some were kept in Mars-like conditions and some stuck on a bare platform outside the International Space Station. There they were exposed to conditions that for animals like us would be completely unsurvivable: extreme radiation, high levels of carbon dioxide and temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero to thousands of degrees above. After 18 months they were brought back. They had suffered, but 35% of those in space and 60% of those in Mars-like conditions survived. You almost certainly know one of them. It’s one of the most recognisable; forming yellow-green patches on bare rock all over the hills – Rhizocarpon geographicum, aka…

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Trail United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2024

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